«Today you carry the banner of land, home and work again, walking together from a social center – Spin Time – to the Vatican. This walking together testifies to the vitality of popular movements as builders of solidarity in diversity.” Pope Leo XIV thus welcomes the popular movements gathered in Rome for their fifth international meeting. The international summit, which brings together delegations from the five continents to reflect and act on the great themes of land, home and work (the “3 Ts”: Tierra, Techo and Trabajo), has chosen Spin Time, the occupied building in the Esquilino district of Rome, famous because Cardinal Krajewski went to restore electricity, as the venue for the events of their Jubilee, taking place from 21 to 24 October. «Choosing this as a house of reference for many popular movements», underlined Don Mattia Ferrari, coordinator of the EMMP platform (Encuentro Mundial de Movimientos Populares) and chaplain of Mediterranea, «is not a choice of provocation, but of value for the life and relationships that that community has with other popular movements. We are not talking about an occupied building and that’s it, but about a building on which the local authority has started a regularization process. 400 people from 27 nations are hosted there, as well as dozens of associations and the community that lives there is in dialogue with the institutions.”
Leone, underlining the lack of a home for many, reiterated, in the meeting in the Vatican, the importance of continuing to commit, to make oneself heard: «Is asking for land, a house and work for the excluded a “new thing”?», he asked. «Seen from the centers of world power, certainly not; those with financial security and a comfortable home may consider these demands somewhat outdated. The truly “new” things seem to be autonomous vehicles, the latest fashion items or clothes, high-end cell phones, cryptocurrencies, and other things of that nature. From the suburbs, however, things appear different; the banner you are waving is so timely that it deserves an entire chapter in Christian social thought on the excluded in today’s world.”
And it is precisely from the excluded that the Pope began his long reflection. «This is the perspective I want to convey: the new things seen from the periphery and your commitment which is not limited to protest, but seeks solutions. The suburbs often cry out for justice and you cry out not “out of desperation”, but “out of desire”: yours is a cry to seek solutions in a society dominated by unjust systems. And you don’t do it with microprocessors or biotechnology, but from the most basic level, with the beauty of craftsmanship. And this is poetry: you are “social poets”».
And, he adds, “the Church must be with you: a poor Church for the poor, a Church that reaches out, a Church that takes risks, a courageous, prophetic and joyful Church!”.
He recalls his experience in Peù where he «experienced a Church that accompanies people in their pain, their joys, their struggles and their hopes. This is an antidote against a structural indifference that is spreading and which does not take seriously the drama of peoples stripped, robbed, plundered and forced into poverty.” We often feel that we are unable to do what we would like, there is a sort of “globalization of impotence” to which, however, “we must begin to oppose a ‘culture of reconciliation and commitment'”, as popular movements do. The world meetings of popular movements (IMMP) were born in 2014 as a response to Pope Francis’ invitation to create spaces of brotherhood between organizations and movements around the world, so that the poor and organized people do not give up and are protagonists of change.
Also for Prevost “popular movements fill the void generated by the lack of love with the great miracle of solidarity, founded on care for others and reconciliation”.
The Pontiff denounces the exploitation of poor countries to produce energy: «Without the coltan of the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, many of the technological devices we use today would not exist. However, its extraction depends on paramilitary violence, child labor and population displacement.” And on lithium: «The competition between great powers and large companies for its extraction represents a serious threat to the sovereignty and stability of poor states, to the point that some entrepreneurs and politicians boast of promoting coups d’état and other forms of political destabilization, precisely to get their hands on the “white gold” of lithium».
But not only that, he talks about exclusion which «is the new face of social injustice. The gap between a “small minority” – 1% of the population – and the vast majority has widened dramatically.” And the excluded are not only exploited «but marginalized, “rejected”. And, when we talk about exclusion, we are also faced with a paradox. The lack of land, food, housing and decent work coexists with access to new technologies spreading everywhere through globalized markets. Mobile phones, social networks and even artificial intelligence are within the reach of millions of people, including the poor. However, while more and more people have access to the Internet, basic needs remain unmet.” So let’s make sure that, when more sophisticated needs are satisfied, the fundamental ones are not neglected. This systemic arbitrariness causes people to be deprived of what is necessary and overwhelmed by what is ancillary. In short, mismanagement generates and increases inequalities under the guise of progress. And by not having human dignity at its centre, the system also fails in justice.”
His words on those who reject migrants are very harsh: «With the abuse of vulnerable migrants, we are not witnessing the legitimate exercise of national sovereignty, but rather serious crimes committed or tolerated by the State. Increasingly inhumane – even politically celebrated – measures are being taken to treat these ‘undesirables’ as if they were rubbish and not human beings.” And he still praises the NGOs that save lives at sea because this “is the Gospel, not ideology”. It denounces drug trafficking and the production of fentanyl, the exploitation of the environment and climate change which affects the poorest.
«Neither trade unions nor employers’ associations, nor states nor international organizations seem able to address these problems. But a State without justice is not a State”, says the Pontiff quoting Saint Augustine. «Justice requires that the institutions of each State serve every social class and all residents, harmonizing different needs and interests».
A desolate context in which, however, concludes the Pontiff, «I am encouraged to see how popular movements, civil society organizations and the Church are tackling these new forms of dehumanization, constantly testifying that those in need are our neighbours, our brothers and sisters. This makes you champions of humanity, witnesses of justice, poets of solidarity.”
